Craft brewery and pub chain BrewDog is continuing its expansion by opening a bar in Plymouth’s £53million The Barcode leisure complex.
The company, famous for its Punk IPA brand, will fill a 4,000sq ft unit at the city centre complex, which opened in October 2019 next to Drake Circus Shopping Centre. Both are owned by British Land Company Plc.
The Aberdeenshire firm will join restaurants and leisure brands already at the development, including Five Guys, Nando’s, Cosy Club, Zizzi, Paradise Golf, and Cineworld.
Independent craft brewer BrewDog was founded in 2007 with the aim to revolutionise the beer industry and redefine British beer-drinking culture and was recently named the fastest growing food and drinks company in the UK.
It now has more than 50 UK bars, with the nearest to Plymouth being in Bristol.
Its most recent set of accounts, released in 2019, revealed an increase in sales for Punk IPA of 16.7% to £41.6million, followed by Brewdog Elvis Juice, which made a 41.9% leap onto the market with £9.1million. Brewdog Dead Pony Club with £9 million.
Overall, BrewDog had total sales, for 2018, of £171.6million, but made losses of £576,000 which were put down to its expansion.
In 2018, its Equity for Punks V investment round generated more than £26.2million from more than 50,000 craft beer aficionados.
A BrewDog spokesperson said: “We are delighted to be bringing awesome craft beer and food to the people of Plymouth and look forward to opening our doors.”
Alice Keown, leasing director – restaurants and leisure, British Land, said: “We’re really excited to welcome BrewDog to Drake Circus.
“It is a fantastic brand, which compliments The Barcode’s restaurant and bar offering and will enhance the overall appeal of the new leisure development for our customers.
“Their decision to commit to Drake Circus, amidst uncertainties in the retail market and COVID-19, is a strong endorsement of the centre.”
Greg Lumley, centre director at Drake Circus, said: “This is great news for The Barcode. With the restaurants and bars recently reopened, there is a great feel to the place and having BrewDog will only add to that.”
The Barcode, on the site of the former coach station at Bretonside, opened in the Autumn of 2019 with a range of VIP events. Its name is inspired by the “barcode” nickname given to it by residents, thanks to its striking monochrome design.
Plymouth has a large and affluent catchment of 560,000 people and benefits from a thriving tourist trade which welcomes 5.1million visitors annually.
The scheme has annual footfall of about 17million people and is located close to the train station, which is connected by a regular bus service.
Global commercial real estate services firm Cushman and Wakefield and independent property consultants Smith Young acted on behalf of British Land in securing the leasing of the unit.
Just this month the Scottish multinational brewery and pub chain announced it had become carbon negative, which made it the world’s first international beer business to reach this status.
Thanks to a £30million investment plan, BrewDog launched a series of initiatives to remove carbon from the atmosphere and so help the fight against climate change.
These include purchasing the BrewDog Forest in the Scottish Highlands, a 2,050 acre site where the company will plant one million trees and restore 650 acres of peatland.
